Here's Looking at You Kid

I am standing on the roof or our hotel, that is Mosque Hassan II in the background as well as a portion of Casablanca. Please note, all photos are again taken by Emma since I still do not have a memory card.

As Americans who were interested in Morocco, many of us have seen (and love) the film Casablanca...so of course we dived into the charming tourist trap known as Rick's Cafe, opened by an American woman in 2004. They have the movie playing constantly on the second floor and it is a nice spot to have a drink without getting hit on by twenty different men--but alas, you must have the money to spend. Since we are all poor college students, we settled on lunch and took plenty of photos. It was amazing. Although, I felt bad for the waiters wearing the Fez caps, which according to history buff Jeff, has something to do with Ottoman rule and is considered rather degrading (although I do see men in the street wearing them from time to time).

Our hotel had open access to the roof--a lot of things are open access because the lawyers here are too pious to sell their souls to the devil; thus, most people are not constantly in fear of lawsuits. Anyway, Emma and I (and eventually Nida joined us) ventured up to the very top of our hotel room for some breathless views of Casablanca. We did not get to see much of the city on the ground due to our lack of knowledge and retreating back to the hotel after spending ten minutes attempting to shirk a boy asking us for money.

Above: Another shot of Casablanca. Below: A medresa, which means "school" (and not fundamentalist Islamic training center) in Arabic.

The call to prayer occurs five times a day, and people do not stop whatever they're doing to pray...they don't even pause in conversation (and I no longer wake up to the 6 am call to prayer every morning) and the calls from various mosques do not seem to coincide...at all. Regardless, it was neat to stand up there in a foreign city looking at all the buildings and people living their daily lives while listening to the minarets belt out the recordings of men singing their praise to Allah. Morocco is a very modern country, the women are fashionable and could teach a thing or two to many Americans! People all have cell phones and MSN messenger is bigger than AIM here. University students are fluent in Dharija (Moroccan dialect of Arabic), Fuhs-ha (standard Arabic), French, and often English or Spanish and are very knowledgeable about what is happening all over the world. There are as many women who leave their heads uncovered as covered (although I quickly realized that is not a sign of modernity but personal preference), and many women are in university and careers. Morocco is still very much a patriarchal society, but the Moroccan woman is cutting edge and savvy, and her social status seems to rapidly be climbing.
The image on the left is a park in Casablanca. The right image shows the French influence in a lot of the architecture in Casablanca. Well, that is all I have for now. I will be in the Medina tomorrow afternoon where all the souks are (open air markets) so I'll try to purchase a memory card and take pictures so you can match images with my lingo!